Line-us Is a Tiny Hackable Drawing Robot

By
PC Mag ME TeamFeb. 6, 2017, 2 p.m.

Draw on paper with a pen or paintbrush, or hook it up to a Raspberry Pi and start experimenting.

Drawing and art creation embraced the digital canvas many years ago and generated millions of dollars for companies such as Adobe and Wacom. But sometimes it's nice to have your creations drawn with an ink-filled pen on paper rather than a digital one on a screen. And now there's a little drawing robot called Line-us that will do that very job for you.

On the face of it, Line-us is just a little machine that holds a pen and sketches images, but the accompanying app and built-in Wi-Fi allow for a whole lot more. The base of Line-us is magnetic and it ships with a metal plate allowing it to securely sit on a piece of paper in a sketchbook. Power is provided via USB cable, which can be connected to a USB battery pack.

Using the app, you can draw something and then have Line-us draw it with your pen of choice (or paintbrush) on a paper. But that same sketch can be shared with others who then get their Line-us robot to draw it for them. If you're out and want to send a message home, just write it in the app and tell Line-us to sketch it.

Rather than creating something useful, Line-us is meant to be fun (and useful), but it's also been made to be built upon as a platform. The hardware can be hooked up to a Raspberry Pi and then modified to add new functionality such as playing music or drawing with multiple colors of paint. You can even use the Scratch visual programming language to make Line-us do new things.

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At the time of writing, it's still possible to secure a Line-us for £69 (US$87) with the robot expected to ship in October. The app is compatible with Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android, meaning it's going to work on the majority of touch screen devices out there including smartphones and tablets.

With the Kickstarter existing to fund the first 1,000 robots I wouldn't worry too much if you miss out on getting one right now. The funding goal has already been reached, so it seems likely Line-us will be turned into a commercial product once the initial units have shipped in October.